Emily Wilson, a freshman at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, walks among backpacks that exhibit stories of suicide victims on March 22, 2018. The traveling display, part of the Send Silence Packing tour, is designed to raise awareness about suicide. Studies associate loneliness and isolation with increased risk of serious health problems and suicide. (Cover: AP Photo/Chattanooga Times Free Press/Erin O. Smith)

Loneliness afflicts millions of Americans of all ages, and some experts think the problem is getting worse, driven by an aging population, changes in family structure, reliance on technology in place of face-to-face discourse and other forces. Medical studies have associated loneliness with costly physical and psychological ills, and social scientists say it can erode community cohesion and even undermine the nation's commitment to shared values and democratic ideals. Countries such as Japan, China and South Korea report similar problems, and in January British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed the world's first “minister of loneliness” to address the issue there. Some researchers contend that Americans are no lonelier than in past generations, and they say technology can bring people closer together as well as drive them apart. But others argue that psychologists, social workers, medical practitioners and policymakers should treat loneliness and isolation with the same urgency as drug abuse or other major social ills.